ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

ACOMSDave Community Journalist

Institutions and their cost to government and the country!

By 1 Comment

InstitutionsWhy is it that public institutions seem to be able to waste money by defending cases for years and preventing them going to court until the last minute?  Isn’t it time we had a yearly review of every case which is currently with, or has been settled for these institutions like for example the various police forces and NHS Trusts, we need to understand how much money has been used to defend these cases both in terms of legal costs and also in terms of staff time, and in the final analysis also for any settlement costs.

This yearly review needs to have public scrutiny and only then will we have a proper understanding and make those responsible accountable.  This is not just a private select committee responsibility, or the Privy Council, it is a direct requirement for the Chancellor to report on annually as part of his budget, and for a proper report detailing all facts and figures.

Dave McFarlane, Community Journalist

 

government institutions

Metropolitan Police apologise over gay abuse investigation – BBC News

A gay man wins a legal battle with the Met Police over its failure to investigate alleged homophobic abuse.

Source: Metropolitan Police apologise over gay abuse investigation – BBC News

Encryption matters for your security

By Leave a Comment

cyber security and encryptionEncryption matters – as someone who regularly writes about ‘Big Brother’ and the intrusion by state and other agencies into our private lives, I have to also point out that we as individuals owe a duty to ourselves and society to protect ourselves.  The first step is being careful with your passwords, do not use simple ones easily fathomed out from your personal details.

Secondly, whenever possible, encrypt your data.  A lot of message systems do so automatically now, but don’t use one if it doesn’t.  Also, check your email service and how secure your emails are from the point they leave you until they arrive at their destination.

Security is our problem, and we can’t complain if we don’t do whatever we can ourselves to ensure our own safety!cyber security and encryption

Encryption needs you! Sign Mozilla’s pledge to stand up for encryption and a more secure Web at advocacy.mozilla.org/encrypt

Source: Encryption matters

Calm down, the Tories haven’t abandoned Alan Turing – they have just ditched an SNP attempt to claim credit

By Leave a Comment

Alan Turing - Pardon

 

It is a good thing that Theresa May’s Conservative government is introducing an Alan Turing Law to pardon gay men convicted of historical victimless sexual crimes – that is what I wrote for The Independent last month. No one should be criminalised for being gay. At the start of the century, I was still policing these sex crimes as a police officer until they were repealed by the Labour government.

Source: Calm down, the Tories haven’t abandoned Alan Turing – they have just ditched an SNP attempt to claim credit

 

tory-mp-sam-gyimah-bore-the-brunt-of-internet-outrage-because-of-his-filibustering

It doesn’t surprise me that the government reneged on their promises – they have continuously done this across so many platforms, that the difficulty is in realising when they will actually tell the truth and stick by the agreed word and promises.

The article written above is clearly a white washing attempt to try and get them out of a hole that they have dug themselves into.  The comment by Of Independent Mind immediately following this article is succinct and factual, and shows how two faced our Prime Minister and her government are in relation to the proposed law to pardon ‘gay’ people who have been done an injustice due to society’s inability to accept them!

I ask you to read the following article and understand why it shouldn’t just be a pardon; pardoning is only a piece of paper, it does not adjust the lives and balance the lives of those men and women who have suffered unjustly for crimes that ‘are not crimes’!

Visit ‘Pride’ in Spain – You Won’t Regret It!

By Leave a Comment

Pride 01Pride in Spain – Always!!!

What is it like being gay in Spain? Well like any question of this ilk, it depends on what you are looking for; but for any Spaniard it means one thing – BEING PROUD TO BE A SPANIARD.  They have pride in their country and their culture. Some of the major cities have a thriving LGBT culture, with clubs and bars, and other venues, but most often you will find that in Spain being gay means you have to travel if you want to socialise. That is not to say you won’t find gay friends in the small towns and villages, but it is difficult unless you are using the internet and apps on your phone – and remember internet access can be expensive in Spain, but a lot of bars/restaurants/cafes offer free internet so the possibility is there.

The following cities run Pride events during the season:

Pride in Bendirom

barcelona-viewpoint

Indeed this year the Benidorm Tourist Foundation,  travelled to Stockholm, along with Turespana and the Valencian Tourism Agency for the Stockholm Pride 2016 LGBT Festival. The objectives of Visit Benidorm where two fold, firstly to promote Benidorm Pride, one of the resort’s most important LGBT assets; and secondly to demonstrate to Sweden’s gay community that Benidorm can offer year-round advantages including LGBT accommodation, beaches, food, sports and leisure opportunities.

 

Folk Gourmet Festival – Saturday 24thSeptember 2016

By Leave a Comment

Folk FestivalMostra Gastronomica Ciutat D’Oliva –

Macrotast – Folk Gourmet Festival

The second event of the festival was on Saturday evening, where on the Passeig you could enjoy tasting some of the best wines of the Oliva and Alforins – nine wineries in all.

Accompanying these wines were food samples of every description. The hosts in all the areas were amiable, happy and excited to show you their produce and let you sample whatever took your fancy, whether it be wine or food!

The event was characterised by the attendance of all age ranges, with families coming out onto the Passeig to mingle, find friends and just relax and be happy.

The entertainment apart from people watching, was provided by the Enric Peidro Quartet whose rendition of jazz classics certainly made me happy, and from what I could see brought out the best in all – some of the younger children as always danced, some just listened – but for most of the attending visitors to the event the music was a welcome bonus, which was unobtrusive but enjoyable.

 

The difficulty in going to such an event, is that making notes about what was available and what you drank is difficult; particularly as the tickets were 10 tickets for 8 Euros, and you only needed one ticket for a glass of wine or a small plate of food.

If the numbers that I saw attending are an indicator, then the event was a great success; and I hope that the sponsors and organisers feel the same and will come back again next year in 2017!

Course 2 – Day Eight: Edge – Straighten Your Image

By Leave a Comment

I am back again, finally I have been able to find time to continue on with my challenges.  This challenge is to use an editing tool to check the alignment and adjust the image so that your edge is perfectly.

What is meant by this; well how often have you taken a photgraph and then when you checked it found it to be slanted to one side or the other?  Steve Patterson has given a very interesting article on using Photoshop to achieve this perfection, but the problem is that Photoshop is not the most inexpensive software on the market.  However the article and what he talks about is worth reading:

Adobe Photoshop photo editing and photo retouching tutorial image

Adobe Photoshop photo editing and photo retouching tutorial image

 

An alternative in Windows 10 has been written about by Ashley Blood, How to Straighten Photos in Windows 10.  There are plenty of other articles, these are just two after my first search.  Now to my problem,  I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Bolshoi showing of their national costumes when it visited Belfast.  The exhibition was held in the old Crumlin Road jail (gaol), using the old cells and the connecting corridor for display purposes.  Lighting was difficult, as was trying to get the images.  I have put together a slide show of the images, but there was one image of a tutu which clearly not straight, and by using the tactics in Windows 10 Photos, I have made some adjsutments.

 

 

Now to my problem:

Edge - Straighten your image

 

And after adjustment, it doesn’t look like much was done, but even subtle changes can make a big effect.

Edge- Straighten Your Image

The exhibition was a show stopper – if it hadn’t been for the fact that it was already in jail, I think my aunt who had accompanied me to the show (and is a devotee of ballet) would have tried to “borrow” one of the costumes!

 

Course 2 – Day Seven: Glass — Interact with a Surface

By Leave a Comment

Experimenting with glass as a surface can create multi-layered and unpredictable shots. Consider this landscape from an estate near Inverness, Scotland:

glass

It’s a lovely scene, but what happens when we place an old, creaky window between the viewer and this garden?

window

Even if you prefer the view without the window, note how this pane of glass introduces a story and adds a layer of complexity to the image. What’s the story behind this estate? Who’s looking out the window?

#developingyoureye #surfacetension  #acomsdave

The challenge here was to find a photograph which generated interest, which was if possible outside the normal framework, and could lead to a story being formed, and also provide different surfaces for the viewer. I have also created a challenge within a challenge, in that I am only using my camera on my phone for these photographs, and the phone is now three years old.  I went out looking over a number of days and nights in Oliva, Valencia, and these are the pictures I have selected along with the surface:

Now choosing a favourite picture for this challenge was difficult, mainly because they were all giving a different story, and not one of them was what you would call a stupendous photograph, but in the end I have chosen Reflections on Reflections, a picture taken through glass at dusk, with little shade and a hint of flash of a shop selling high end sun glasses.

Surface - Reflections on Reflections

Reflections on Reflections

with a close second was, Shape of things to come, a photograph of a paint shop window whose display was of almost gouda quarters in different colours with paint tubes set in some of the holes.

Surface - shape of things to come

Shape of things to come

 

I hope that you will enjoy my choices, and would welcome any comments that you have.

 

 

 

 

Course 2 Day – Day Five – Moment of Motion

By Leave a Comment

#developingyoureye #moment #motion #chance

That ‘Moment’ in Time

Today’s project set us the task to define a moment in our lives and share it with the viewers!
But, the task must convey to us movement, as a way of conveying time and fleetingness.

I then started keel-hauling my albums to find that one defining photograph and one defining moment.

The Ensemble of Moment

Lots of photographs came up, and some came close to defining that moment; for example:-

  • Spooky Funfair
  • You missed a beat
  • A burst of speed
  • A spectre awaits
  • Carrying the torch
  • Regal afront
  • Dead to the world
  • Leading the charge
  • Let’s exchange
  • That’s a stretch

Various cameras/smartphone cameras were used to take the photos, depending often on what was available; on most occasions taking photographs had not been the main thought of the day (hic).

Job to Do

What has come out of this review of some of my albums, is that I need to reorganise and re-title and also to tag my pictures to make them easier to find and analyze.

My choice of the Moment

So which picture have I decided to use as my main one, well it is the one titled ‘Dead to the World’ – it is the complete opposite of all those movement ones,it is off two lads (backpackers I believe) who completely exhausted fell asleep in Cardiff Museum in the main hall, where all the attendants allowed them to sleep, and even quietly directed visitors away from them.  The frame of the pillars again was chance, I was upstairs, looked over the banister rail and saw the lads and took the photograph – poor chance

Motion - Dead to the World

Dead to the world

 

 

Using your smartphone as a camera

By Leave a Comment

Using your smartphone as a camera

I am currently taking my second ‘small’ 10 day course in photography with a different aim each day to make you look at the world differently through the eye of a camera. But in today’s world a camera, can be that super dooper SLR. The small compact hidden away in your pocket or more likely the ambiguous smartphone like the current favourite the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with its 12-megapixel, f/1.7 shooter – deemed to be the best dynamic range ever on a smartphone camera (Tech Insider).

The reality is that in most cases, you can achieve excellent photographs without resorting to really expensive equipment that professional photographers have – remember that is their livelihood!

I am going to develop my theme by using a smartphone with its camera. I do not have a really expensive phone, it is now about 3 years old, it is a Galaxy S4 mini which has an 8 MP camera.

The Way Forward

Whilst most of us will not be endowed with the high end smartphone camera, and in consequence we will have to be aware of their limitations, however to get around this we need to go back to basics:

  • Composition – think about light, the colours, the lines and where you have placed your subject.

    Smartphone Camera pic from Oliva

    Derby -Surrounded by kids

  • Join up – most of us take photos to share with others. Join with a photo-sharing group e.g. Instagram or Flickr – connect with friends and other picture takers – get and learn from their feedback, and develop enthusiasm for the camera.
  • Check out your camera app, and it’s basic features
    • Gridlines to your frame – helps you centre your subjects and gets horizon lines level
    • Enable or disable flash
    • Set a time
    • Adjust exposure level easily
    • Lock your focal point and exposure level
    • Shoot video
  • Know your camera – don’t just read the manual (which by the way you should do!), but practise using the various options on your camera
  • Smartphone composition pic from Newcastle

    My beautiful picture

    Develop a great compositional style – check out other photographer, look at the great ones, what doe they have in common ‘A great compositional style’.

  • Develop your ability to shape light
  • Develop your ability to see lines within a composition – is there a better line, just feet away?
  • Don’t crowed all the time – look for space within a compositional

 

  • Frame it! Frame it! Frame it! – Frames can help the viewer to focus on your subjects
  • Not everything is black and white! Remember changing your viewing position can change the colour of the picture – try it out and be selective with your shots Camera phone - ducks in a row
  • Look for reflections and shadows
  • Be aware of the shutter speed, what it does and how your camera may adjust a picture according to its conception of what is good –
  • Check your autofocus – sometimes you will need to override it to achieve that shot you know is brilliant

Some ideas for projects:

  • Take photographs of yourself, your friends or our family
  • Try macro photography – remember that manual I told you to read!
  • Get a group of like minded friends and do a photowalk through your town or city – do this once a week
  • A-Z – working your way through the alphabet, choose a place and try to find three or four subjects that match the letter of the alphabet.
  • Choose something, a word, a theme, a feeling etc. and try to get a collection of photographs to match that theme.
  • Go B&W instead of colour – what difference does that make to your pictures?

References:

Course 2 – Day 2 – Mystery – Manipulate Light

By Leave a Comment

During this second day of the photography course, I have been tasked to take a photograph that creates a sense of mystery – a spectre in your memory.  Having trawled through my photographs I came across a number which might have fitted the theme:

 

 

However whilst I felt they met the brief, I still thought they left something out – a sense of mystery, and because of this I have chosen the following image:

Times of Mystery and Suspense

The ghosts are waiting

 

‪#‎developingyoureye‬  #mystery #lonesome